Dartmouth College apologizes to Black Lives Matter protesters

On November 12, a group of approximately 150 students at Dartmouth College entered the institution’s Baker-Berry Library, chanting “Black Lives Matter” while harassing students studying in the library. A writer with The Dartmouth Review, an independent newspaper at the college, claimed to have seen a female student pinned up against a wall as the mostly black protesters called her a “filthy white bitch.”

The raucous radicals chanted “F--k your white privilege!” and “You filthy white piece of s--t!” Witnesses also claimed that doors in the library were blocked off as specific students targeted for verbal attacks when they refused to join the protest. One student who attempted to flee, reportedly came under a barrage of harassment and screamed obscenities from the protesters.

Dartmouth College decided to issue an apology, not to the students who were intimidated and harassed, but instead to the Black Lives Matter mob for being subjected to criticism. The protest has generated a criticism and media coverage as journalists focus on the verbal harassment and alleged physical attacks that some students suffered.

Tsion Aber, a junior at Dartmouth College and vice president of the NAACP branch at the college, averred that profanity and harassment were used. That was part of the plan, said Abera. Abera denied, however, that anyone was subjected to physical assaults.

According to The Tab, a 19-year-old student who was studying in the library saw the protesters enter while chanting "black lives matter." The protesters then gathered at the center of the library at tables where other students were trying to study. There they shouted and banged on tables, while demanding that students join in solidarity. Those who did not were targeted and questioned. The Tab reported that a girl in one of the study rooms closed the door of room on one of the protesters. In response, the protesters became enraged. Finally, she left the room and passed through the mob silently as the protesters screamed at her and called her a "white bitch."